The Icon Question

Hey everybody,
Since we've gotten onto the topic of the default icon theme for Fedora -

Well, above all, everyone here wants Fedora to have a slick, great-looking
desktop, right? That's the main goal of the Fedora Art project. With Fedora Core
5 we've started to move in that direction with a new logo (thanks to Matt Muñoz)
and new theming elements (thanks to Diana) and have received positive feedback.
However, we are still using Bluecurve as the default icon set, which has been
around for a few years now. Among the complaints about Bluecurve is that it's a
cartoony, and 'dated.' So it would be nice to have a fresh, slick look on the
icon front for Fedora.

Tango has been suggested as an alternative to Bluecurve, but nobody has really
picked this up to make it happen. (Remember, Fedora is a community project, you
vote with your time & effort.) As the front page of the Tango Project webpage
states, it is "A *suggested* default native look [1, emphasis mine]." Diana,
myself, and other Fedora users and developers that we've talked to feel the
Tango look is a bit too close to Bluecurve to address the complaints we've heard
about Bluecurve. It feels more like a next-gen Bluecurve than something new.

We realize that the look of icons for an operating system can have far-reaching
effects. An example I like to use to illustrate this point is the influence the
look of Windows XP Icons [2] appear to have had in the somewhat recent UPS logo
redesign [3]. One of the core goals of Fedora in general is innovation - looking
towards the future [4]. Can we do that visually - can we make an innovative and
cultural impact on the world with Fedora while using Tango? It doesn't seem likely.

The main argument that we've been given as a reason for adopting Tango is (to
roughly paraphrase) - 'it won't work unless everyone uses it.' The main goal of
the Tango Project is: "to help create a consistent graphical user interface
experience for free and Open Source software[1]," presumably to make FOSS more
usable. I'd like to draw a parallel between this notion of 'all icons should be
the same to be usable' to Jakob's Nielsen's idea of usability - his website,
which may very well be the height of usability, but is far from pleasurable or
delightful to look at. [5] There is definitely some conflict between visual
consistency across desktop distributions and the branding of each said
distribution, but both are important. Agreeing on a standard set of metaphors /
objects to illustrate for icons for each item in the Tango naming spec, for
example, would go a long way towards meeting Tango's quite noble goal without
requiring Fedora to sacrifice its brand its own desktop.

Looking towards the future of Fedora's visual design, Diana has put together a
sample mockup (20 icons) of a possible 'next gen' Fedora icon theme. This is an
experimental work-in-progress to explore future possibilities - a suggestion for
a default Fedora icon look. We'd like to keep this an open discussion. Remember,
the goal here is a great-looking desktop. Some of us (Diana and I) think we
could do better than the Tango look. So here it is:

We are not moving to Tango right now. We'd like to move to something new in
the future.

* What icon set should Fedora Art contributors be working on if they want to
create new icons?

You can continue to work on Bluecurve icons, keeping in mind that we are
looking to eventually retire it as the default theme. You can also help us out
in coming up with a better alternative - we welcome any feedback / proposed
revisions to Diana's mockup, or you come up with your own.